


We've Got Each Other

by Altiria



Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling, The Walking Dead (TV)
Genre: Carrying, Enemy to Caretaker, F/M, Female Harry Potter, Harry is in the walking dead universe, Near Death Experiences, Support, Whumptober 2020, the walking dead universe is also the Harry Potter universe, they're both idiots
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-07
Updated: 2020-10-07
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:40:40
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26867551
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Altiria/pseuds/Altiria
Summary: Their relationship had been nothing but a series of fighting and rescues. Yet somehow Daryl falls for her and it takes Holly nearly dying for the… hundredth time, for him to realize it. Perhaps Merle hadn’t been so stupid in the end, Daryl really was blind to women.
Relationships: Daryl Dixon/Harry Potter
Series: Whumptober 2020 [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1946422
Comments: 7
Kudos: 224





	We've Got Each Other

Their relationship had been nothing but a series of rescues and fights.

The first 'rescue' belonged to Daryl; it occurred when he'd found a treed woman surrounded by walkers. He'd been hunting along a game trail intending to set some traps, had been for hours by that point when he heard a furiously yell. Curious despite himself, Daryl had left the game trail, wandered into the forest, and came upon the woman. Daryl knew she'd broken her leg from the first glance, yet had managed to climb a tree when running turned out impossible. 

Deep down, he was slightly impressed she'd managed the feat. But he didn't have the personality that would result in him actually complimenting some stupid woman in a tree. So instead, he kept his distance - and his crossbow on the walkers - and shifted enough, so he caught her attention. It didn't take long; she was smart enough to be looking for a path out of her predicament long before he showed up and so she noticed him reasonably quickly.

"Little help?" she called, and Daryl smirked. 

"I think I need a bit of incentive." He drawled back and started their long war of arguments. 

Yes, eventually, he did get her out of the tree. After she'd furiously flashed him, not what he'd meant by incentive Daryl had actually wanted the string of skinned rabbits hanging off her shoulder. Still, he took it - again, that was mostly because the damned walkers noticed him shortly after the flashing. He then he'd let her be; he had hunting to do and didn't expect to see her again. 

Naturally, Glenn found her in the forest a mere day later and had been back in the quarry by the time Daryl had finished hunting. Holly, as he learned her name was, smirked, waved cheerily at him… and their verbal war began in full. 

The second rescue belonged to Holly. She'd elected to join Rick, Daryl, T-dog, and Glenn to find Daryl's highly racist and probably dead brother from the city. Not because Holly had been involved in the original situation - if she had, Merle would not have been left behind - but because she'd rescued the despair in Daryl's attacks when he learned his brother's fate. Holly understood that sort of loss; everyone would, considering the state of the world. Really, even though Daryl was a dick, Holly still wanted to erase that expression from his face. So she'd gone to find his brother. 

They didn't find him. They'd only found a hand and trail of blood leading away. Holly had ensured both were collected; she could do quite a bit with a small bit of blood and her wand. Though she didn't get around to actually casting a tracking charm, not as Rick led them to collect his weapons and they were attacked by a random group in the city. Either way, it was good that Holly had been present for that. Especially when one of the opposing group had spooked and shot Daryl in the damned chest. 

Holly had gotten coated in his blood, he'd collapsed into her arms, and the kid had bolted. It left Holly with a choice, one she made quickly enough. Daryl was a dick, but people were now a rare commodity. So she'd pressed her wand to the mess that was his chest, healed the injuries and then edited Daryl's memories on the incident. As far as Daryl knew, Holly had yanked him out of the path of the bullet a moment before it went off. 

Though it would take him years to figure out why he'd been so weak following the event. Extreme blood-loss did that to most people, after all, even if they didn't remember it. 

The third rescue was Daryl's.

They'd been in the CDC, trapped really considering the locked doors and the damned Doctor that decided joint suicide was a smart idea. Holly, Daryl noticed, wasn't one of the weak-willed ones to just accept that either. In fact, she seemed more furious than even him at the Doctor's actions. Holly snarled, snapped, and paced while Rick tried to talk the man down and while Daryl had gone straight off the handle. She'd joined him when he'd taken an axe to the door until they were alerted that it was pointless.

She had kept quite far from the computers oddly, but that was something Daryl only noticed in passing. As he'd later discover, it was because technology usually died around her, and Holly hadn't been willing to reveal her magic to apparate everyone out so soon. She would have. But she'd hoped Rick could convince the Doctor before it came to that.

Either way, when the door opened, the whole lot of them went sprinting up the stairs to get out. Daryl, too, though he like everyone else, had stopped to grab his things before heading for the ground floor. A good thing he had, because Daryl was the one to stumble onto Holly's unconscious form. He'd also been the one to swear, cuss her out, drop his bags, grab her, and get them both out. Daryl abandoned everything he owned - apart from his bike and his crossbow - to carry Holly-freaking-Potter to safety. 

Later that afternoon, Daryl would learn that Holly, like Daryl, had seen Shane going a bit too far with Lori. Though she had said something, and the man had knocked her out when he'd gotten the chance. Shane hadn't expected her to survive, and Daryl didn't let the man anywhere alone again. And Holly personally decided it was a bloody good thing she hadn't revealed magic to the group before Shane was removed from it. 

The fourth rescue flipped them again and equalized them as they grew into the habit of doing. One after another, they'd save each other while bickering. Daryl then Holly, Holly then Daryl, again and again. 

The fourth revealed what she really was to Daryl when she arrived explicitly when he needed help. Holly had shown up in the river just before a walker took a bite of his arm. She'd arrived a moment before Daryl had become one of those things. Had stabbed the thing in the head, saving his life when she should have been miles away in the farmhouse with the 'women-folk' cooking as she'd been ordered by Walsh. And no, Daryl didn't actually believe in that. Holly had made it clear she was just as capable of surviving in the forest as he was - apart from the tree incident. 

That she'd shown up exactly when and where he'd needed had caused some harsh words from Daryl. Gratitude… wasn't a great look on him, especially when he was delirious from blood loss and running off a brutal scare. He'd yelled, snapped, all but demanded what sort of bull tricks Holly was capable of. He'd accused her of setting his horse up and far worse… only for Holly to tap that stick she always kept with her to his side… and healed his wound. 

Things could have gone one of two ways from then. Either Holly would have altered his memories, or she would have let him keep them. So when Daryl's first, deliriously prompted, question was: "You some kinda witch then?… you seen a chupacabra?" Holly elected to leave his memories intact. 

"I haven't, but they are real…?" 

"Knew it," Daryl said, relieved to finally have proof the creature he'd seen wasn't just in his head. 

Their relationship only grew more complicated from there on. From the absolute fury that possessed him when Holly had nearly been shot when Rick took her to reclaim Hershal, to the full-on break down when the cannibals put their weapons to Holly's throat. To Holly's utter devastation when she learned Daryl, and Merle, had left the prison because no one would accept Merle. Holly wouldn't either; their meetings after Holly had tracked him down had been far from positive. To the way Daryl stood directly in front of Holly, protecting her when she told the full group about her magic. Only for him to insult her and storm off minutes later when things calmed down. 

Daryl grew used to having Holly at his left. Until he trusted her more than anyone else in the world, and yet he still fought with Holly more than anyone else in the group. New members were convinced they would kill each other in a fit of anger. 

They were complicated. 

But when Negan pressed that bat of his to Holly's head… Daryl's mind finally clicked. This threat was real, Negan was going to kill Holly, and she may not be able to reach her wand in time-

Daryl knew then what it was like for ice to freeze your lungs. For your heart to actually stop. 

Negan looked at Daryl as he chose Holly; as if he knew-

Oh god- he loved her, he loved her, and she was going to die- how hadn't he noticed-

The bat swung up, and Daryl hurled himself against the arms restraining him with a scream. "Holly!" 

"Holly, do it!" Rick yelled, panicked, terrified because she didn't have her wand in hand-

The bat stopped a breath away from her head, and Negan laughed. Laughed as Daryl was thrown into the dirt, as Holly stared him down. She was steadfast, unafraid, unconcerned with how close to death she'd been. Holly looked to Negan with the confidence of a woman who'd ensure her afterlife was used to destroy her killer. Mimicked the face Lily Evans had pulled as she stood firm against Voldemort himself with her toddler behind her. Perhaps the expression scared him, maybe her magic had done it, or maybe it really had just been a whim that caused Negan to turn again. To laugh and taunt Daryl, to swing the bat close to Holly once more and watch him freak. 

Negan was having fun as Daryl's life flashed before his eyes over and over again. 

Neither of them noticed Holly's wandering hands as she shifted her fingers toward her boots and shot a look at Rick, and Rick nodded. 

Negan's numbers had been unexpected; his people were his advantage. The man ruled because of them; they were his greatest weapon. 

Rick's group had a different advantage; a young, geography displaced woman that Daryl had saved on a whim and Glenn recruited because she'd been there. A woman who'd grown to trust them. Who revealed her secrets when she finally felt comfortable, who only needed a stick in hand to become an army of one. 

Holly's fingers wrapped around her wand, and a smile grew. 

It was an hour later that Holly found herself sitting in the dirt surrounded by bodies. She'd killed them, every one of the saviours around her without hesitation or pause. This was what she'd become, from a girl who couldn't even cast the killing curse at Voldemort, to this. 

"Holly, you saved our lives. Remember that." Rick tried to comfort her as he'd done Carol. Holly, much like Carol, didn't feel overly comforted. She didn't, not until Daryl dropped to the ground beside her and wrapped his arms tight around her shoulders. Until dragged her to his side, put her head at his neck and held her. Until he whispered, so no one but Holly would ever hear, that he was a damned idiot. 

"I'm in love with ya, been for a'while." 

Holly made a noise in the back of her throat, fondly amused, "I could have told you that months ago." She'd fallen for Daryl when she'd woken in his truck after the CDC; when he'd thought her asleep and shot her a look of such blatant concern that her heart hadn't been able to handle it. Though, she also could have told Daryl that he'd loved her since she'd told him about the charms Holly had stuck on her people, the same that had kept Sofia from being bitten while she'd been lost. She hadn't though; Holly had waited instead for him to realize it himself. 

Perhaps should ought to have just told him and saved them the time.

"Gonna show it properly from now on," Daryl told her simply. He intended to show her how good he could be for her. Show her that he deserved her attention, that she ought to give him a chance. 

"If you want to, I suspect we'll continue fighting like crazy as we always have." and then she reached up and pulled him into a kiss. 

As it turned out, they were both idiots. But anyone else in their group could have told them that. 


End file.
